What images and words do come to mind for residents of the San Antonio neighborhood that abuts Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills? How about images of the Hanna family whose children Hudson and Cortland opened a stand to sell grapefruit from a tree that began growing in their backyard in the 1940s?

How about Rohn Bayes, whose public access television background and modern video technology inspired him to host what has become known in the neighborhood as the Backyard Film Festival?

“There are numerous residents in constant communication with each other,” said Mark Wittlinger with the city of San Antonio, and RVK Architects about planned improvements at Scates Park, the site of the THNA's annual picnic and other neighborhood functions.

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With a $6,000 grant from the Green Spaces Alliance, Terrell Heights residents are organizing a community garden on the Larchmont traffic island.

In the same area, neighborhood residents answered the city's tree-planting challenge and received six Lacy Oaks to help replenish the Larchmont island's tree canopy.

Residents are dedicated to the neighborhood's Elf Louise Christmas Project toy drive. There's an extra good reason for that — Elf Louise herself, Louise Locker, is a resident.

Residents remain in close touch with each other not only through the neighborhood association's website and newsletter, but through a private social media network.

Austin Highway marks the neighborhood's southern boundary. It's a commercial corridor that, after years of public/private discussions of renewal, is seeing a surge of new business, but the area isn't without its challenges.

“Terrell Heights is unique community of very talented, multifaceted families that enjoy getting out in the community, helping neighbors, and having lots of fun,” said Judy Temple, a neighborhood resident of more than 11 years.

Terrell Heights is bounded by Eisenhauer Road, Vandiver Road to the east, Austin Highway and North New Braunfels Avenue. Most of the 895 homes were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The neighborhood's population ranges between 2,700 and 3,000. Mark and Ann Deeds were very active in getting the neighborhood association going.

“The neighborhood association has seen an upsurge in participation and activities within the last two years, due to more consistent efforts at getting information out to the public about area projects and neighborhood activities,” said Kimbell, who works on the THNA newsletter committee.

“The newsletter has been instrumental on that front. There has also been quite a bit of interest from local businesses in advertising in the newsletter,” Kimbell added. “And with the Nextdoor Terrell Heights, which was implemented just a few short months ago, we now have a fairly active social network.”

Resident Art Ordoqui created Nextdoor Terrell Heights. Kimbell explained participation in Nextdoor consists of about 225 households out of 895. With the last edition of the newsletter, membership in Nextdoor increased by about 30 percent within about 30 days.

“While membership in the neighborhood association remains rather low compared to actual number of households, membership has increased by roughly 30 to 40 percent in the last year. I believe membership is somewhere around 180 households,” she added.

Others agree that consistency and number of neighborhood projects and events have enabled many Terrell Heights residents to remain involved in ensuring the proactivity in their community. One such activity is Backyard Film Festival, which debuted last spring at eight-year resident Bayes' home.

“The 'Rohn Bayes Roving Reporter' show was produced on access TV in Austin but I began doing video while living in San Antonio,” Bayes recalled.

“(The film festival) was really a dance party with different music videos from YouTube that myself or other people had selected. They happen fairly often, but not necessarily regularly,” he added.

At one recent “festival,” Bayes shared photos and videos from his trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

“I do them when I'm inspired to share something. I don't want it to become an obligation. The invitations are custom made and shared with friends and neighbors via email or as flyers,” he said.

Bayes' interest in video originally came from the opportunity provided by public access TV to create programming.

“It was an enlightening and empowering process to discover that I could participate in the medium of video and that led to the idea of sponsoring the film festival because I was finding so much amazing material on YouTube, Vimeo and elsewhere,” he said.

Each festival has had varying themes, such as “The Power of Story,” “Seeds of Peace” and “Our Natural World.”

“The attendance hasn't been overwhelming – 10 to 15 – but it's starting to create momentum and now with the possibility of inviting people thru the Nextdoor website I think the attendance will grow,” he added.

Grassroots organization like Bayes' home film festival effort has long been instrumental in the formation of Scates Park in Terrell Heights.

Scates Park was part of the green space in the Terrell Heights development that was established in 1942. In November 1988, THNA worked with the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department to develop Anna Elizabeth Scates Playground at Meadowlane and Field Crest, in memory of the Rev. and Mrs. Ronald Scates' 2-year old daughter, who died in a drowning accident in eight months previously.

Over the years, the city has upgraded the park, including playground equipment, but groups such as the Boy Scouts have proven invaluable with helping Scates Park to keep up with the times.

“Many of the large cedar elm trees surrounding the playground equipment were transplanted from McAllister Park by the city,” recalled Judy Wells, a 25-year resident.

“The neighbors living around Scates Park took turns dragging hoses to water the trees during that first year after they were planted,”

Voters approved of the city's 2012 bond issue, allocating $350,000 to further improve the park. Following a series of public input meetings, plans are on track to add a covered pavilion, upgrade soccer practice fields, and to put in a sidewalk and fence around the park.

“These improvements are due to start late August/early September. We are very pleased and excited about the improvements to the park. We are very thankful for the efforts of (District 10) Councilman (Carlton) Soules for the bond monies coming to Scates Park,” Wells said.

Terrell Heights residents overseeing Scates Park improvement plans have been working closely with Mark Wittlinger of the city's Capital Improvements Management Services. He'll be at the neighborhood picnic March 30 at the park with improvement designs on public view.

“The neighborhood association has been excellent to work with. The initial public input meeting at their annual association meeting had the most people in attendance at any neighborhood meeting I have seen in 17 years with the city,” said Wittlinger.

“Their input has been very thoughtful and useful to move forward with design. I was impressed with the positive interaction and rational analysis between members on different ideas. They are certainly advocates for their park and neighborhood.”

For more information on Terrell Heights and its neighborhood association, see www.terrellheights.org. Part 2 appears next week.